Pumpkin Read Online Free Page B

scarcely need to dig. But setting down a lantern at the graveside, they did. A trooper offered a sympathetic shoulder and Vera pressed against it, averting her gaze as the other two officers wielded their shovels.
    One of them spoke now. “Hey, look at the coffin—the lid’s all splintered.”
    He slid it back, then gasped.
    It was his gasp that caused Vera to look up, then run forward and peer down into the grave, into the open coffin and the moldering outline of what lay within—a fully articulated skeleton, the skull mouth frozen in a ghastly grin.
    Cradled in its bony arm was David’s head.